Senators: Gang of 8 bill not an option in border crisis

The four Republican members of the Senate's "Gang of Eight," including Sen. John McCain, left, and Sen. Marco Rubio, second from right, are trying to reassure conservatives that any bill used to address the border crisis will not be used to advance comprehensive immigration reform.(Photo: Republic file photo)

Some U.S. House Republicans say they are worried that a border-crisis bill would return from a joint House-Senate conference committee combined with the bipartisan Gang of Eight immigration bill that the Senate passed on June 27, 2013.

The conspiratorial concerns are threatening to stymie action on recommendations from U.S. House Speaker John Boehner's working group on the border situation involving tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

On Thursday, the four GOP members of the Senate group — including U.S. Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona — felt compelled to issue a joint written statement insisting that they are opposed to co-mingling the immigration issues.

"While we continue to support the goals of comprehensive immigration reform, none of us would support including that bill in legislation needed this year to address the current humanitarian crisis on our southern border," McCain, Flake and U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida said in the statement. "Any legislation considered this year must be focused exclusively on addressing the current crisis, halting the flow of unaccompanied children crossing the border and preventing future waves from making the dangerous journey north."

The four GOP senators collaborated on the 2013 immigration bill with U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; and Michael Bennet, D-Colo.

Along with an unprecedented $46.3 billion investment in border security, the Gang of Eight's package also included a 13-year pathway to citizenship for most of the nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants who have settled in the United States and other proposed reforms that are anathema to conservatives who oppose what they call "amnesty." Although the Democrat-controlled Senate passed the bill on a bipartisan 68-32 vote, Boehner, R-Ohio, and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives refused to consider it.

U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., the only Arizonan tapped by Boehner for the ad hoc border group, told The Arizona Republic that he heard warnings about the Gang of Eight bill from some of his fellow House Republicans when the recommendations were unveiled on Wednesday.

The House GOP working group, led by U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, wants to revise a 2008 anti-trafficking law to make it easier to deport unaccompanied immigrant children from Central America and require the minors to stay in federal custody until their expedited hearings. Other recommendations include deploying the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to help take care of the children in order to allow Border Patrol agents to focus on their other responsibilities.

The House group's proposal is $1.5 billion, compared to the $3.7 billion that President Barack Obama is seeking from Congress to deal with the border emergency.

"The biggest pushback from anybody in our conference — it's kind of a consistent message — is twofold," Salmon said. "One is that anything we pass is going to come back with the Gang of Eight bill on it, and they're worried about that. The second is it doesn't matter what we pass because the president will only pick and choose the parts that he wants to abide by.

"My response to that is we still have a responsibility to do our job, and we have an opportunity to fix this problem, to end the catch-and-release policies of this administration, to keep people detained until they are adjudicated and heading home."

Flake told The Republic Friday that he and his fellow Republican Gang of Eight members wanted to act quickly to dispel the notion so that the rumors don't interfere with addressing the crisis.

"Obviously, nobody in the Senate believes this is going to be a vehicle to bring up comprehensive reform," Flake said. "But we didn't want anybody in the House to use it as an excuse."

Nowicki is The Republic's national political reporter. Follow him on Twitter at @dannowicki.